Sanju Samson Irreplaceable Like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli; RR Captain Riyan Parag Makes Huge Comment Ahead of IPL 2026

IPL 2026: Sanju Samson has been the talk of the town even before he landed in Chennai. He was unstoppable at the T20 World Cup and fans expect him to do similar things at Chennai Super Kings. Ahead of the season, Rajasthan Royals skipper Riyan Parag has compared Samson to veterans Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli. As per Parag, Samson is irreplaceable. 

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'Sanju Irreplaceable Like Rohit, Virat'

"If you talk about Sanju bhaiya, we never think about replacing the kind of player he is," Parag told reporters in a pre-season press conference.

"We can perhaps look for someone with a similar skill-set or have someone bat in his position...It's like there is no replacement for Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma... In the same way, there is no replacement for Sanju bhaiya because he is such a good player," Parag added.

For the unversed, Parag replaced Samson as the new captain of the Rajasthan Royals. Samson was lapped up by Chennai Super Kings. He was part of the Royals franchise for 11 years across two stints. Samson also happens to be the leading run-getter of the Royals. Samson led them to the IPL 2022 final and the playoffs in 2024.

Parag also admitted that the plan in 2026 is to plan better and finish games, which they couldn't do in the previous edition. Riyan Parag-led Rajasthan Royals will kick off their IPL 2026 season against Chennai Super Kings in Guwahati. It is going to be a mouthwatering clash because of obvious reasons. 

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RR IPL 2026 Full squad

Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Donovan Ferreira, Sandeep Sharma, Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger, Ravi Bishnoi, Sushant Mishra, Yash Raj Punja, Vignesh Puthur, Ravi Singh, Aman Rao, Brijesh Sharma, Adam Milne, Kuldeep Sen.